Preface

This document is still a WIP, some pages are incomplete or missing

Purpose

This document is intended to give an introduction into Python, the programming language. It further aims to introduce the reader to core tools and applications of Python as it relates to Scientific Computing.

This document is not an exhaustive guide to Python as a whole, as such a document would be extremely long. Instead this document aims to highlight important core concepts necessary to understand how to use the language.

This document is also not a how-to, though the author has kept the syntax used as simple as possible and commented the code extensively.

This document is, however, written to be usable independently of the presentation it was prepared for.

Intended Audience

The author prepared this document with students of the Physical Sciences in mind.

It is assumed the reader does not know Python, but has been previously exposed to logic and some programming concepts. As such, the first section has been dedicated to explaining the core syntax and basic terminology of the language, which serve as the bedrock the Scientific Computing stack builds off of. The author firmly believes that teaching how to use Python for Scientific Computing first requires the student to understand the fundamentals of Python itself.

Sources

Presentation source material and examples can be located on Github: theunkn0wn1/uci-bootcamp-2021